Wednesday, 10 February 2016

SCS - Overview of the November Examiner's Report

During
the build up to the February exam, we thought we'd take this
opportunity to share with you some vital comments from the November
SCS Examiner's Report.

This
will give you a valuable insight as it will help you to
understand what the Examiner will be looking out for in your own
exam.

It
will also help you to identify where to focus your revision during
these last few days and give you some important tips for when
you sit the exam.

Overall,
the performance in the November exam was generally to a lower
standard than the August exam, but that is not to say that there is
nothing useful to take away from it to help future students. If
anything, this emphasises the need for you to listen to what the
examiner has said.

"Performance
overall was reasonably good and in some cases excellent, with the
usual handful of poor scripts. Performance was, however, not as good
as it was in August. There were several weak areas on which
candidates must improve in the future."

Here
is what we consider to be the most useful points from the full
report:

1. Application
to the pre-seen - Applying
the theory to the pre-seen is absolutely critical to score well in
the exam. The Examiners emphasised that there are no marks for just
pure knowledge - it needs to be applied in a relevant way to the
case study.

2.
Relevance of theory -
The examiners stressed the importance of ensuring that theory
used in your answers is relevant to the question. There is no point
in reciting a paragraph of text that you have memorised and trying
to shoe-horn it into your answer when it isn't relevant.

3.
Awareness of the Industry and Company - Students
that have an understanding of the context of the company and bring
wider issues into their answers will stand out. The examiners were
disappointed that the basic knowledge of the pre-seen was not
very good, given the amount of time that students have to familiarise
themselves with it. So make sure you know the pre-seen!

4.
Revise all areas of the syllabus - The examiners
commented that students need to have a good knowledge of all areas of
the syllabus. Remember, any area of the management syllabus can be
assessed!

5.
Answer all elements of the question - Failure
to give a complete answer is the easiest way to lose marks. Make sure
you read the question carefully and identify all of the requirements.

6.
Knowledge of ethics -
Ethics has been present in the majority of SCS exams so far,
therefore your knowledge of ethics and ethical principles should be
to a high standard. Being able to identify and apply ethical issues
and principles respectively when necessary will allow you to gain the
top marks.

7.
Manage your time -
There was evidence that students had not had enough time to really go
into depth and develop some answers. Being able to plan your time
accordingly will give you the ability to create a balance between
answering all of the sections and answering each section in the
required amount of detail.